Vying for the honour of the first human rights treaty of the 21st century is the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. After 25 years of work, the text of the draft convention has been passed by the UN Human Rights Council and now awaits adoption at the General Assembly […]
Eleven years after Europe’s largest mass murder since World War Two, there is the prospect of justice for the victims and survivors of the massacre of over 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in the UN ‘safe haven’ in Srebrenica. The trial of seven former Bosnian Serb officers began last month at the International Criminal Tribunal for the […]
You may be unwittingly suffering an infringement of your human rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), drafted during the Cold War, states that "any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law." The 152 countries that are a party to this treaty must legislate against war propaganda as "contrary to public […]
They did it. Negotiations of the UN ad hoc committee concluded successfully late on Friday with an agreed text to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Convention will be presented for adoption by the General Assembly in September. Says Committee Chair Don MacKay: “This marks a great day for the UN […]
Indian architect Miloon Kothari has been UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing since 2000. He has just concluded a visit to Australia to assess compliance with human rights obligations in relation to housing. Since ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1976, Australia has been obliged to fulfil […]
After 5 years of negotiations, there’s a race to find agreement among the UN’s 192 member nations on a treaty to protect explicitly the rights of people with disabilities in time to have it adopted at the next meeting of the General Assembly in September. Writes the UN’s Thomas Schindlmayr, who suffered a permanent spinal […]
Business suits or pantyhose. Former British PM Margaret Thatcher is said to consult her lawyers before travelling abroad for fear of being arrested for international crimes (for ordering the sinking of Argentine warship the General Belgrano as it sailed away from the conflict during the Falklands/Malvinas War in 1982, at the expense of 323 lives). […]
I heard David Hicks’ defence lawyer, the affable Major Michael (Dan) Mori, speak in Melbourne today and (updating a previous post) he mentioned that Hicks’ British citizenship was revoked shortly after it was granted. Mori is pressing to have it restored. Mori emphasised the importance, in so politicised a case, of the Australian public (and […]
There’s a venerable principle of criminal law that seems to be turning on its head in Western democracies, and a number of human rights along with it. The principal begins with an acceptance of the fact that no system of criminal justice will ever be inerrant. There will always be wrongful convictions and wrongful acquittals. […]
A friend of mine has sent me some good news about girls in Afghanistan: they are for the first time playing competitive football in Kabul, at the Ministry of Defence sports field, no less. Presenting a trophy to the Maiwand team, the UN Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ameerah Haq, noted that five years ago, […]
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